Aquatic Resources

(Honolulu) – The severe and widespread coral bleaching event predicted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is already occurring along reefs across the state.
Last week, a team from the DLNR Division of Aquatic Resources (DAR) conducted a rapid assessment of coral health at Molokini and along Maui’s south shore from Makena to Maalaea.

(Gilbert Kahele Recreation Area) - 45 women, mostly from Hawai‘i, spent the last few days being schooled in outdoor skills during the first-ever “Becoming an Outdoors Woman (BOW)” retreat in Hawai’i. This is the Aloha State’s initial foray into a 20-year-old international program that sponsors skill-development weekends in 41 states, seven Canadian provinces and seven other countries.

(Nāpali Coast State Wilderness Park) – This holiday weekend, fishermen from Kaua‘i’s west side and from the north shore joined forces with a team from the DLNR Division of Aquatic Resources (DAR) to try and remove invasive Black Chin Tilapia from Nu‘alolo Bay here.

(Honolulu) - Data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Coral Reef Watch program, indicates Hawai‘i’s coral reefs are entering a major bleaching event within the next two months, if not sooner.

(Nāpali Coast State Wilderness Park) - Thousands of black-chin tilapia have invaded near-shore waters in the Nāpali Coast State Wilderness Park on Kaua‘i. Fishermen first reported seeing large schools of mostly juvenile tilapia over the past two weeks. Yesterday a team from the DLNR Divisions of Aquatic Resources (DAR) and Boating and Ocean Recreation (DOBOR) conducted in-water surveys at the Nu‘alolo Kai section of the park and confirmed the reports.

(Kailua-Kona) – Dramatic photographs of two oceanic whitetip sharks, lacking fins, along with photographs of a dead, three-and-a-half-foot long whitetip reef shark is raising concern among marine biologists on Hawai‘i Island.

(Honolulu)-The Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) will be participating in the State of Hawaii Career Fair on Saturday, June 29, 2019, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the Hawaii State Capitol, 4th Floor Lanai, at 415 S. Beretania Street.

(Honolulu) – This morning a small team from the DLNR Division of Aquatic Resources (DAR) carefully ‘planted’ extremely rare, endemic Porites duerdeni coral onto a reef in Kaneohe Bay just off Coconut Island, home of the University of Hawai‘i’s, Hawai‘i Institute of Marine Biology. This species of coral was likely wiped out during major bleaching events in 2015 and 2016 and previously was thought to grow in the bay as one of the few places in the world where it’s found.